


Running on Empty

by minkhollow



Category: Iron Man (2008)
Genre: Gen, sweet charity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-06-17
Updated: 2009-06-17
Packaged: 2017-10-02 10:10:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5184
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkhollow/pseuds/minkhollow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Pepper works too hard, and Tony does something about it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Running on Empty

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Flora for Sweet Charity. Sort of follows on No Shape For Driving, at least in my head.  
> I am not Marvel by any stretch of the imagination; I just borrow out of love.

_"Sir."_

"Just a minute, Jarvis." Tony has never liked being interrupted mid-inspiration. He's lost some of the best ideas that way, and he thinks he's on his way to an important upgrade to the suit, this time. If he can just figure out how to account for the stabilizers as well as the thrust...

_"Sir, I believe this is a bit more important than your upgrades."_

"At least let me get this marked down, will you?" He makes the appropriate notes on his schematics - he can always come back and build them later, if this is so important that Jarvis insists on interrupting him. "Okay, what is it?"

_"Miss Potts appears to have collapsed in the living room, sir. She was working on one of the sofas, but her computer is currently at a very unsafe angle, and she appears not to have noticed. As she is not the sort to sleep on the job, I suspect this is a bit urgent."_

"...Dammit, Jarvis, why didn't you _say_ so?"

_"I did attempt to, sir, but you preferred that I wait."_

Tony sighs. "And she'll kill me if she wakes up in the hospital, even though she probably needs it - anyway. I think you've got enough medical programs that we can try to figure out what's up here."

_"Indeed, sir, but I doubt that knowledge will do you much good if she is upstairs and you are here."_

Tony doesn't bother answering that, since he's already halfway up the stairs. He'll bring her down in the elevator, but he can take the stairs three at a time by himself; it's faster than waiting for the thing, especially since he last left it upstairs anyway.

He finds Pepper passed out on a couch, as Jarvis said; he moves her computer, before it has a chance to fall off her lap, and then picks her up and heads for the elevator. She does move a little in response to being picked up, but she doesn't wake up in any appreciable way. He does his best not to freak out, at that, at least until he's got something approaching a diagnosis.

When he gets downstairs, he sets her up on the medical chair he ordered when he got back from Afghanistan - like a dentist's chair, only far cooler because it doesn't include any dentists - and digs up some sensors. Pepper still doesn't really stir, and Tony tries not to start panicking while Jarvis does his thing.

_"She appears to be suffering from fatigue and dehydration, sir,"_ Jarvis says, around a minute later. _"We should perhaps attempt to rouse her soon, though I recommend you remove the sensors and procure a glass of water before doing that."_

"The water makes sense, but why - oh, right. Because she'll freak out if she wakes up to that."

_"Indeed, sir. She will likely be distraught enough at finding herself in the garage so suddenly."_

There was a time when Tony would have said there was nothing sudden about it, but that was before he saw it from the side of passing out. Granted, there had been a lot more blood loss involved in his case, but it amounted to the same thing - out in the open one minute, in a cave with a box of scraps (and a car battery attached to his chest) the next.

...Okay, so this isn't really the same at all, but he knows the overall _feeling_ enough to pull the sensors off before he goes for the sink. He's halfway through washing out a glass that's been down here God knows how long, but at least wasn't housing a science experiment, when Pepper finally stirs.

"...what am I doing in the garage?"

"You passed out, Pepper, that's what. Jarvis says it's fatigue and dehydration - when's the last time you slept?"

Pepper sighs. "Last night. I'm _fine_, Tony. Just - get me a glass of water, since you seem set on doing that anyway and if you're washing a dish for the occasion, I'd better not make you waste it, and I'll get back to work."

"No, Pepper. Passing out isn't actual rest, I know this from experience. You need dinner and a nap, at the very least. Probably more like a week of vacation or something."

"I am _fine_, Mr. Stark. Anyway, there's too much to be done for me to take time off right now."

Tony dries off the glass, then fills it. "It'd get done. Other people are, in fact, capable of covering your work load."

"They don't do it as well."

"Maybe, but they also don't try to do it all themselves, which means they don't know everything you do. I can make sure they cross-reference. Don't get yourself worked up over this - the last thing you need is the added stress."

Pepper sighs again. "I'll be fine. Take your own advice and don't work _yourself_ into a tizzy over me."

Tony hands her the glass; Pepper's hand is shaky when she takes it.

"It's not working myself into a tizzy over nothing, Pepper. You're not as fine as you think you are if you passed out and you're still wobbly. And you will be fine, yes, I have no trouble believing that. You will be fine because you're staying the hell here until you _are_."

"Tony--"

"I'm not going to take away your paperwork. Depending on how seriously you take this, I might take away your Blackberry, but that's another story."

"You're being ridiculous." Pepper finishes the water, hands Tony the empty glass, stands, and promptly wobbles her way back onto the medical chair.

"Not if you can't keep your balance in your heels, I'm not. So it's my plan, or I take you to the hospital, and hospitals aren't relaxing for _anyone_."

Pepper shudders. "Not to mention they have terrible reception."

"See? I knew I'd win you over. Now, I'm still taking away most of your work load for a few days. If people desperately need help figuring it out, they can call you - but only if they desperately need it. But I'm not going to stop you from doing absolutely anything, since I know you, and you'll just go a completely different kind of crazy if I do that."

"I still don't think you need to do it at all."

Tony sighs. "Except for where I don't have anyone else. No point in you breaking down beyond the point where you're useful." It sounds a lot more mercenary than it is, but... well. He _doesn't_ have anyone else.

And he'd rather limp along mostly without her for a few days than let her dive right back in and drown in her work.


End file.
